MOVIE STUDIOS WOULD BE HARD PUT TO REPLICATE CHASE OF PAROLEE

3-1/2 hours? Shucks, after one hour, cops in Texas would have terminated the chase by shooting the bastard. Bob Walsh says: "That’s because in Texas they believe in law and order and public safety. California is much more into warm-and-fuzzy. I am a little surprised they didn’t just run him out of gas, but maybe they let him stop and fill up along the way. In California, you never know."

PAROLEE LED LAW ENFORCEMENT ON HIGH-SPEED, 160-MILE CHASE

Los Angeles Daily News
July 18, 2011

LOS ANGELES - The California Highway Patrol on Sunday released the name of the man who led several law enforcement agencies on a high-speed, 160-mile pursuit that lasted nearly three-and-one-half-hours and ended when CHP officers stopped his car with a spike strip on the Golden State (5) Freeway in the Grapevine.

Michael Andrew Martinez, 29, is a parolee, said CHP Officer Krystal Carter. He was booked on a felony evading charge into the Van Nuys jail, Carter said. Inmate records indicate that took place at about 3:30 Sunday morning. No court date has been set and Martinez is being held without bail.

The pursuit of the 2011 black Hyundai began as an attempted drunken driving stop by Los Angeles police at about 7:30 p.m. Saturday near the Topanga Canyon Boulevard offramp of the Ventura (101) Freeway, CHP Officer Saul Gomez said. The driver refused to pull over and the chase was on.

Los Angeles police units handed off the pursuit to the CHP around 8 p.m. as the driver headed eastbound on the Pomona (60) Freeway, just east of the northbound San Gabriel River (605) Freeway, said CHP Officer Anthony Martin.

A woman was a passenger in the suspect's vehicle, but Officer Doug Johnson of the LAPD's Valley Crime Task Force said she was not a hostage, as some family members had told police. The CHP took Martinez into custody, Johnson said, and then handed the pair over to the LAPD, Martin said.

Gomez said the pursuit hit almost every freeway in the region -- including the 101 Freeway, the San Bernardino (10) Freeway; the 605 Freeway, the 60 Freeway and the southbound Ontario (15) Freeway -- but not the San Diego (405) Freeway, which was partially closed this weekend.

The suspect even made it into Riverside County, then doubled back onto the Ontario (15) Freeway to Fontana, where he evaded a CHP PIT maneuver designed to stop him, Gomez said. The suspect then got on the 210 freeway and headed west to Los Angeles via the southbound 605 Freeway, the 10 Freeway, the southbound Santa Ana (5) Freeway, the southbound Long Beach (710) Freeway and the eastbound Glenn Anderson (105) Freeway, Gomez said.

The pursuit continued onto the congested northbound Harbor (110) Freeway near Staples Center, where the suspect squeezed his car along the shoulder, then worked his way back to the northbound Golden State Freeway for the last leg of his journey heading north to the Grapevine.

That is where CHP units laid the spike strip that finally brought the chase to an end at about 11:20 p.m., Martin said.